The South Tower
by The.Red.Terror
Summary: Rose Weasley is not looking forward to 6th year. Professor McGonagall has a new plan to inspire unity among the houses of Hogwarts and it doesn't bode well for any of the 6th years. And what is Scorpios Malfoy doing in her trunk?
1. Chapter 1

The South Tower

The train shuddered to a halt, the doors opened and students streamed from it onto the platform of Hogsmeade station. The noise of 300 people happily greeting each other, comparing summer holidays, and discussing the upcoming year hit me as I stepped down from the prefects compartment. I felt no such excitement when I thought of the upcoming year. After the letter that came from the headmistress 2 mornings ago all I felt was gloomy. A pit of dread bubbled in my stomach when I seriously thought about the repercussions this year could bring.

I tried to be positive, you never can tell, everything that Professor McGonagall wanted to achieve might yet come to pass, but many heads of Hogwarts had attempted the same and had failed abysmally.

I could hear Hagrid calling the first years to him, to take them across the lake, for their first view of the magnificent castle that was my second home. Some things at least were sacred, and never changed.

I envied the little firsties, for their wonderful innocence, and their lack of responsibilities and for the fact that tonight they would be sleeping in a room of people that they would come to trust.

I sighed deeply, as I followed the other prefects towards the carriages. Even they weren't burdened with the same knowledge that had been thrust upon me. Only 3 people in the entire student body knew. Myself and the head boy and girl. McGonagall hadn't seen fit to inform me of the reason for telling me, just stress the need for complete secrecy. I couldn't think of a punishment severe enough for ruining my last 2 days of freedom. A voice interrupted my inner ramblings, and stirred me from my vat of misery

"Rose? Over here for Merlin's sake. The sooner we get to the castle, the sooner I get a decent meal into me."  
>I smiled at my cousin James's ferocious appetite and climbed in beside him. As I sat the carriage took off, the thestral pulling it eager to get his own dinner perhaps.<p>

Louis, Fred and Hugo were arguing over the chances of their quidditch teams in the upcoming year. They all played on their house teams, Hugo was a chaser for Ravenclaw, Fred played beater for Gyffindor, and Louis was Slytherin's seeker. I sighed again. Another thing to worry about during the year. I was keeper for Gyffindor, Albus was a chaser and James was our captain and seeker, but how it would all work out this year was beyond me. Technically only Albus, Louis and myself should be affected, but this was the Weasley family clan. All for one, and one for all and all that jazz. It worked for the musketeers it worked for us. Louis had made me read the book in our 2nd year, and I still read it every now and then. James makes fun of my fondness for muggle fiction, but I love escaping into another persons world. I wish I could musings were again interrupted as Hugo nudged me in the ribs and looked at me expectantly. I'd obviously just missed a question

"Er sorry, could you repeat that? I had zoned out" I answered apologetically. Hugo shook his head in exasperation.

"I asked you who you thought could replace June as chaser. Come on Rosie this world please!" I glared at him.

"You're not too old for a clip around the ear you know! What about little Darcy?" I grinned at the thought

"Who in the name of all that's holy is little Darcy?" asked James suspiciously

"Darcy. She's a 4th year. Blonde girl? Known as little Darcy because she's so tall? Spent last summer at your house? Lily's friend?"

"Lily's friend? Wait is that the one who looked like she was always sleepy? Oh is that her name? Ha didn't catch it at the time! I had a mishap with an invention of Uncle George's and couldn't hear for the first week of summer!" James grinned

"She's in our house as well, and she's not exactly easy to miss! How do you not know who she is? She's legendary. She's the one who set fire to the herbology greenhouse during Care of Magical Creatures. Honestly James!"

"Rosie darling do you not know that I am too cool to be associated with anyone below 5th year unless they're family. I have a reputation to upkeep!"

There was general hysteria at this remark, which nearly resulted in Louis going head first out the door of the carrige, only saved by the combined efforts of Fred and James. We eventually managed to calm down enough to sit still.

"Where's Lily?" I asked suddenly. "I'd like to see what she has to say about Darcy."

"I saw her climb into a carriage with some other Hufflepuffs. I think she has forsaken the Weasley clan" said Fred

"I'm not surprised after what you did to her in Ireland" I answered raising an eyebrow

"Ah come on Rose you know that was hilarious. And in fairness it was only supposed to last an hour" Louis laughed with Fred

"It might be funny to you, with your blondness Louis and your mop of dark hair Fred, but as a fellow ginger I can only sympathise with the poor girl. It was horrendous. Freckles are fine in small doses, but quadrupling a gingers freckles and turning them blue? For an entire week?"  
>The boys set off laughing again, the result being that by the time we pulled up at to the Entrance Hall there were tears running from their eyes, and I had forgotten what a disaster of a year this could end up being.<p>

It didn't last long.

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><p><strong>Hey hope anyone who has read this enjoyed it. Please R+R so I know what I'm doing rightwrong**

**It is short but shall get longer as I go on.  
><strong>

**I don't own Harry Potter. I can't make money from this (sadly)  
><strong>


	2. Chapter 2

**And here is chapter 2! I love words of encouragement. Hint hint! I'm going to try and regularly update. I'm so busy being unemployed and all! I love this pairing. I really do. I have no really plan it's just a general outpouring. Hmm. I'm not beta'd, I try and do that myself but I'm sure to miss things :(**

Chapter 2**  
><strong>

As we sat down at our house tables for the beginning of the new school year I started to feel slightly more optimistic. Really now I was starting to sound a little over dramatic. Surely it wouldn't be that bad. And if it was McGonagall might decide to cancel the whole operation altogether. Hmmm. Actually probably not. She was fairly stubborn when it came to her great ideas.  
>I wondered what the other 6th years would make of the changes to come. Everyone would probably be all right about it until they thought about the Slytherins. And the Slytherins wouldn't take it well at all.<p>

I didn't think Slytherins were pure evil, I couldn't one of my first cousins was a Slytherin, but I didn't know any of them well and quite liked it like that. The Sytherins were intelligent and thought about things before jumping in. They put themselves first most of the time and some were a bit snobbish. Cunning was the word the hat used. Sneaky was how my father described them. My word of choice would probably be foxy. But most of my classmates and family thought of them as evil.

My mother put it well for me once. She said that teenagers have trouble with the grey areas of life. That most things are black and white for them. That's why they argue so much, as they can't see the reasoning in another persons point of view. She said also that I was useless in an argument because I saw so much of the grey areas, and had too much empathy with other people to fight with them. But I wasn't a typical teenager.

James and his friends were talking over the worth in betting how many first years had fallen in the lake this year, when the door opened and in strode Hagrid, followed by a trail of first years, none of whom seemed wetter than usual, but who were looking around the Great Hall fearfully. A couple pointed at the ceiling, enchanted to look like the sky. I too looked up at it. Summer was late to end this year and today had been very clear. The sky outside was still bright, a brilliant blaze of orange and pink lit up the west side, dusk gently approaching from the east.

I watched the sorting with trepidation. No one from the family was starting this year, but my best friend Gillian Bowen's little sister Liz was among the new students standing in front of the hat. Professor Longleaf, the deputy headmaster, head of Ravenclaw and Transfiguration professor started calling the names

"Achmet, Zoe" a tiny dark haired girl sat under the hat for a minute

"Hufflepuff" the hat shouted. A cheer rose from the Hufflepuff table and little Zoe ran across to her new housemates.

"Allderton, Richard" I looked at one of the boys in my year in surprised.

"Edward" I called down the table "Is that your brother?" "Yes, that's Dickon. Definite Slytherin. Sneaky as the day is long"

I nodded slowly. Typical Gryfindor attitude towards Slytherin. This was going to be an interesting hat duly sent little Dickon off to Slytherin.

"Bowen, Elizabeth" The hat had barely touched her head before she was sent to the Gyffindor table amid roars of approval from the house. Gillian looked very relieved. I gathered from her face that there would have been hell to pay if little Liz had ended up else where. The rest of the sorting continued in much the same fashion as it had in the past, and wasn't over half as quickly as it should have been if you judged by the chorus of rumbling stomachs that surrounded me. As the last first year (Woodward, Anna) scrambled off to Ravenclaw, I looked up to McGonagall to see if she'd make her announcements now, or after dinner. Evendentially she opted to give us the bad news on full stomachs, because food appeared on our plates straight away. Perhaps she thought we'd be less likely to riot. I was unconvinced.

As I ate, I listened to the conversations around me, occasionally taking part. Gillian nudged me after a few minutes to make sure I was all right I was so quiet. Once I made sure no one was listening I told her quickly that I'd had a letter from McGonagall that had given me a lot to think about. She was starting to quiz me when Albus interrupted.

"Rose any idea who the new professor is?" He asked a fork full of mash halfway to his mouth. "I don't see anyone missing do you? I looked up at the high dais, looking over the teachers. Seated between Professor Longbottom and Hagrid was a young witch in a beautiful set of green robes. She was having an animated discussion with both of them, and laughed as I watched at something Hagrid had said. She was goodlooking, with long red hair, and a pair of dark sparkling eyes set in a even featured pale face. Her small mouth was smiling as they argued, and her dark eyebrows lifted in amusement. I did a quick count of staff.

"No one is gone. All present and correct plus one. I wonder who she is?" A murmer went down the table at my reply.

"Ministry?" James asked

"Doubt it. She's too young"

"Quidditch?" Albus asked

"Hardly!"

"Wife?"

"Whose?"  
>"Hagrids, perhaps."<p>

"No, Longbottoms" James said straight faced

"Don't be silly, he married Hannah last summer. James you were there!"

"I was? I don't remember that."

"We caught you snogging Jenny Grimesby!"

"Oh. Ok. I have a vague memory of that. I think."

"Oh I know. She's married Filch!"

"Merlin! I think Gillian's right!"

"God, don't say things like that. They might be true!"

"New subject?"

"What? There was nothing new on the book list."

"I dunno. Sex Ed?" Albus replied somewhat hopefully.

The guessing game continued, the questions and answers getting wilder as it went on. I had a suspicion that the new witch was something to do with the new setup. McGonagall finally put an end to our discussion as she stood up and the room went quiet.

"Welcome all to another year at Hogwarts. I trust you all enjoyed your summer, and are now ready to buckle down. Just a few notes. First would all students please note that the Forbidden Forest is strictly out of bounds, Mr Filch would also like me to remind you that all Weasley Wizarding Weezes products are banned. Also please remember not to use magic in the corridors." Her eye lingered on all the Weasley relations at the various tables.

"I have one introduction to make. I would like you all to welcome Professor Howard." The young witch stood and bowed with a flourish to the applause

"Professor Howard will be taking Guidance Councelling for the upper years, as well as helping Hagrid with Care of Magical Creatures, and teaching a new subject I have introduced, which we're calling Understanding and Intergrating. It will be compulsory for all years, and you will hear more about it during your first lesson. She will also be working closely with me and the 6th years on a new project." There was an expectant silence. The calm before the storm. I braced myself for the riot.

"This year we are bringing in a new system for 6th years. In the hope to encourage Inter House Unity all 6ths years will now live together in The South Tower." There was a stunned silence followed by uproar at the headmistresses pronouncement. I sat back and waited for general mahem. There was nothing I could do to stop it. I could see, over James shoulder, Louis and his fellow 6th years arguing furiously. I watched with interest, wanting to see the Slytherins responce to the news. Theirs would be the most extreme. Louis was speaking quickly, but quietly, gesturing rapidly in a very gallic way, which must be from Aunt Fleur. A blonde girl tried to interrupt, but he waved a hand at her, and she shut up. Louis was one of the prefects for Slytherin, on the quidditch team, was consistantly high in the class, pulled amazing pranks and was a general good laugh. As such he was at the foremost of the Slytherin 6th years and was respected by his peers. Malfoy was nodding along to whatever Louis was saying thoughfully. The blonde girl looked annoyed but nodded too. The others surprisingly, seemed to calm down and shut up. At our table was Albus was trying to calm our lot down. Good luck to him with that. Bulls in china shops would have more hope. McGonagall finally called for silence.

"Your house alligences will still stand. You will still eat with your house, lose and gain points for your house, still play for your house etc. I would like all 6th years to remain here. The rest of you, off to bed. The prefects will show you to your houses first years. I hope you all have an excellent year."

The room emptied in a few quick minutes. Albus was having a conversation one of his friends, David, but they were talking so quickly and over each other that all I managed to catch was something about the Hufflepuffs. I looked around at the remaining 44 students. They were all looking angry or confused. McGonagall and the new Professor Howard were coming down from the dais. McGonagall managed to shut the entire room up by clearing her throat.

"I know this is new, and something that may take a while to used to, but I expect every single one of you to behave. If you have any problems talk to your prefects or Professor Howard. She will be acting as head of 6th year. She will take you along to The South Tower now and explain further. Good luck." She gave a curt nod, turned on her heel and strode from The Great Hall, back ramrod straight. Professor Howard came forward, smiling with genuine amusement.  
>"Hello all. I'm not going to try and talk to you here. I'll lose my voice trying to make myself heard" She laughed, and then frowned when no one smiled back. "Oh cheer up it's not the end of the world! Come on then, I'll talk to you in the common rooms."<p>

She smiled again and led the way out of the hall. We followed, moving in our house groups. Gillian fell into step beside me.

"Is this what McGonagall wrote to you about? Pretty drastic isn't it?"

"Just a little bit. I guess everything else has been tried though. And I do see her point."

"Mmmmn so do I. Plus there's a couple of dishy Ravenclaws I wouldn't mind unifying with if you get my drift, not to mention your cousin Louis. Swit swoo!" She laughed, tossing she dark brown hair from her eyes and dodging a half hearted punch from me. We stopped at a painting of a woman in full armour, sitting on a rearing horse. Only her head was uncovered, with long blonde hair curling down her back and a naked long sword in her right hand.

"Password?"

"Fraternity" answer Professor Howard.

She led us though the passage behind the picture and into a large hexagon shaped room with high ceilings. It was painted a neutral stony cream with the house banners hanging on four walls, and the Hogwarts crest on the 5th above the fire place. There were chairs, and sofas scattered around the place, all covered in a mix of different house colours, library shelves on the fireplace wall, and doors and stairways on the others. Professor Howard gestured towards the chairs and sat herself on a navy arm chair trimmed in red. She looked over us as we sat, all near her. Gillian sat into a yellow chair trimmed with blue and Albus took one arm, and I the other. The rest of the year had taken much of the same formation, sitting as many on a piece of furniture as would fit.

Professor Howard smiled as we settled. She looked very young to me. The eyes that I thought were brown from far away, turned out to be navy and a smattering of freckles covered her nose.

"Right I know you must all be bursting with questions, and I know I need to introduce myself properly, but all that can wait until tomorrow. I have you for the first two classes tomorrow, during which we will go over everything. For now I will give you the layout of the tower, and your dorm arrangments. The door through which we came is the one on the Ravenclaw wall, boys dorms are up the stairs on the Gryffindor wall, girls on the Hufflepuff. The double doors on the Slytherin wall lead to the private courtyard, the stairs above to my quarters. Four to each dormitary, one from each house in most cases. Your room assinments are on the doors of the rooms. Unless you have a serious reason, requests to move dorms are falling on deaf ears. The stair cases in here are not sensitive to gender, so boys don't have to worry about flying down a staircase, and I don't mind people being in the wrong dorms during the day, but I don't want to see anyone taking advantage of this. I'm going to treat you like responsible young adults, and I expect you to behave as such. If you have an immediate problem, you can knock on my door. I'd seriously think hard about how much of an emergancy it is after 10 in the evening though. I need my beauty sleep. Unless you're having a party. I like parties. There are more rules and things that I need to go through, but that's enough for right now. Off to bed with you. And please don't start fighting until tomorrow if you must at all."

She stood, and gathering her green robes around her, smiled and left.

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><p><strong>R+R please my lovelies :P<strong>


	3. Chapter 3

I woke early the next morning and lay in bed , basking in the morning sunlight that flooded through window next to my bed. I had purposely left my four poster curtains open last night so I could lie like this. I'm a complete sun worshipper, but I have to be careful not to burn. Lobster red is not a good colour for gingers.

I stretched slowly and sat up. The other 3 girls were still asleep, and a look at my watch told me that it was too early to start moving yet.

My room mates were all right. One was the blonde Slytherin that I had seen arguing with Louis. Her name was Sophia Gregory and she seemed okay. She was quiet but polite and was now sleeping soundly, breathing softly, her hair strewn over her pillow.

The Hufflepuff was a girl called Jean Thorpe, an intensely silly girl who I had a run in with in 4th year. She had stalked Albus for a while and I lost my temper with her one day. Since then her hair had gone back to it's natural dark brown colour and we managed to keep a civilised veneer on things. Barely.

I liked the Ravenclaw girl, a tall slim girl called Anna Jessop. Her bother Oliver was a friend of Hugo's and while I didn't know her well, I admired her a lot. She was quiet, but had a wicked sense of humour and flew like a bird. She played as a beater and belted with the strength of any lad. She was asleep on her stomach, one leg hanging out of the covers, her light brown hair covering her slim clever face.

Sighing again I realised that it would be at least an hour before the others would wake. I turned onto my side and tilted my head towards the sun, and was asleep again a few seconds later.

3 hours later, I was regretting my nap. I had woken up groggy, and the girls had swiped all the hot water. The result was that my brief foray into the freezing shower did nothing to wake me up properly and I couldn't bare to stay in it long enough to condition my hair, which was now twisted into a damp messy bun at the back of my head, and was probably starting to frizz. By the time I sat at the Gryfindor table I was throughly grumpy and still half asleep. The main topic of conversation was the betting on who was most lightly to be seriously injured first.

My money was on a seriously annoying Ravenclaw called Andrew Brixton who had the ability to wreck a head from 20 paces away. Jean Thorpe however was favourite at 2/1(Albus was running the book), because she was in a room with me and Sophia. Apparently Sophia wasn't know for her patience either.

I sat clutching a bucket of steaming coffee before deciding I needed more information before making any bets. I waited a minute for the caffeine to kick in.

"Who's Andrew in with?" I asked the table

"Me, Malfoy and Tony Griffin" Said Edward Allderton dejectedly. "I swear to god I'll be in a loony bin by the end of the year"

I laughed sympathetically. "Put me down for 5 Gallons please Albus, Malfoy will annihilate him!"

Our laughter was interrupted by Professor Longbottom handing out our timetables.

"6th years you all have Prof. Howard this morning. I trust no one has died yet? I wouldn't like to have to attend a funeral so early in the year. Did you all have good holidays?"

Albus answered for us. "They were great Neville! And no deaths yet, but it won't long I'd say. Would you like to have a bet?"

"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that Albus. Running a book is an expellable offence. And that's Professor Longbottom to you during term." The Professor laughed and moved on down the table.

Gillian and I looked over each others time tables. They were very nearly the same, but she was taking Runes and I had chosen Care of Magical Creatures.

"God I don't have any free periods on Mondays! I loved my free period before lunch. Instead I have bloody double bloody potions! Gahhh" Gill exclaimed with disgust

"Double potions on a Monday? Brilliant!" I checked my timetable. "Fantastic I only have three classes on a Monday. Double Howard, double potions, and double Care of Magical Creatures! I love whoever set this timetable" I grinned happily, the coffee was definitely doing it's job properly. I munched on a slice of toast as I examined the rest of the week.

Gill and Albus were looking at me as if I'd suddenly been infested by a swarm of pygmy gnomes

"What?" I asked wincing as a drop of water from my hair trickled down my neck and under my shirt.

Gill shook her head at me in exasperation "Only you would be excited over double potions. I swear there's something wrong with you"

I laughed at her as we gathered our stuff together for our first lesson

Ten minutes later the 44 6th years were seated in classroom at the base of the astronomy tower, waiting on Professor Howard. The bell had rung 5 minutes ago and there was still no sign of her. The classroom was arranged almost like the Divination classroom (which I had ventured into once, in 3rd year, just to annoy mum), with chairs and pouffes of various sizes and styles scattered around the room in small clusters. Gill, Albus and myself had claimed one of the clusters in the middle and we had been joined by Louis who was followed by Malfoy and Sophia.

I was a bit surprised by the latter two's choice of seats but kept quiet. I'd never had much to do with either of them. They were an introverted bunch, our year of Slytherins. There were always rows of course, but no huge rivalries.

Malfoy was the "strong silent type". At first I had thought that he wasn't very bright, and that was the reason for his seemingly broody nature, but he always did well in his classes. The only time I had seen him really animated was during quidditch. He played keeper for Slytherin and played it quite well. He was good looking, with his pale hair brushed back in soft wings over his ears, and grey eyes, and one of the more silly girls in my dorm had been known to swoon over his wide shoulders. Personally he wasn't really my type, I like to have a bit of a laugh with a bloke, but he did well for himself with girls. There was always bits of scandal floating around Hogwarts (stick over 300 teenagers with raging hormones in the same building, what do you expect?) and there had been a few bits about him over the years.

It was noted that he never went out with anyone from his own house. I didn't know what the story was there, probably something to do with being related to most of them. Hell if you went far enough back even we were related.

Sophia was pretty. She was no great beauty, but had the palest blue eyes, with long dark blonde hair. Her features were even, except for her very short upper lip, which couple with her high head carrige gave her a permanent look of disdain. She was smiling now though over something Louis and Malfoy were discussing. Albus had just joined in. I listened for a moment, knowing it was rude to do so, but I figured that if they sat with us they wouldn't mind too much.

Oh no. It was something about the portable lake that Uncle George had just sent Fred. While I am a fairly good actress, trying to lie to McGonagall was nearly impossible. I'd usually start to twitch. I had lost count of the amount of times the Headmistress had pulled me up to her office to ask me to try and control my unruly cousins (and brother). I'd be more successful trying to control a herd of stampeding elephants. I cleared my throat.

As the others looked up questioningly, we were joined by yet another cousin, Molly who was Uncle Percy and Aunt Audrey's eldest daughter. Molly was a very pretty Ravenclaw who had managed to escape all of the Weasley genes and was the image of her mother, with long brown hair and hazel eyes. Lucky her.

She was dragging a chair with her, while glaring daggers at the group she had just left.

"Budge over guys, I hope you don't mind me joining you, but if I had to listen to effing Andrew for another moment, I swear I would have taken great pleasure in shoving my fist into his face" She dropped into the chair, exhausted by her rage, as we laughed sympathetically.

"I wish you had Mol" I said, as I did some quick calculations "Albus would have owed me 200 Gallons!"

Even Malfoy laughed at that.

"Urgh" she replied "Would someone please kick his ass into hell? You're in his dorm aren't you" she asked Malfoy hopefully "Couldn't you slip him something fatal during the night" She raised an eyebrow and looked up at him appealingly. He smiled again

"It would be my very great pleasure, but I promised my mother I'd do my best not to get expelled. I'm sure we can work out something though, even if just to get Rose her 200 Gallons" he replied looking at me and winking. I was a bit startled, but was saved by the entrance of Professor Howard, who was dressed in pale grey robes with a matching muggle skirt suit underneath today. I had to say, the woman had style.

"Good morning, everyone still alive?" She looked around, smiling when no one was announced deceased, and looked like she was trying to stifle a laugh as Molly answered "Unfortunately"

She took a clipboard from her desk and transfigured the desk into an armchair.

"Now then. First I'll go over a couple of rules I didn't mention last night. Most of the same Hogwarts rules apply, but the South Tower is my jurisdiction as I am, for all intensive purposes, your head of house. First I do not mind parties. The object of this program is to promote befriending people outside your house. So a small amount of alcohol is fine with me. Just don't go mental, and not on school night, except for special occasions, for which permission must be granted by me. Also, if you are a smoker, feel free to smoke in the courtyard, you'll probably find me there anyway. Hogsmeades visits can be arranged through me. If you want to go down, just ask me. If you're having any troubles you can come to me. I'm open to any discussions, and I don't judge. It's hard being 16, I remember. I'm also here as career guidance. Don't worry if you don't know what you want to do with your life. You're not really supposed to. I still don't know what I want to do with mine." We laughed and Professor Howard smiled at us once more. "I would also advise you not to ask me anything important first thing in the morning, let me at least have my coffee first, preferably a full breakfast. Two more things then. I'm thinking about forming an amateur quidditch team to take part in the BAT, which is the British Amateur League for any of you who don't know. Anyone interested, please come to me in the next few days. Also anyone interested in learning to drive a car or ride a horse is welcome to ask me about those too. Both are very handy skills let me tell you."

There was a couple of startled mutters at the last bits of information. I wondered if I could fit a second quidditch team into my schedule.

Professor Howard glanced at a silver pocket watch.

"Lovely that's that done. Now this class is simply to help you to fit into each others worlds. Some of you have been brought up as muggles, some as purebloods, and some straddling the two. The last group has the least need for this class, but I promise you will all learn in this room. First thing I want is a show of hands, How many of you have a pureblood parent?" There was a slight hesitation then nearly half the room raised it's hands. Professor Howard did a quick count.

"Thank you. Now if I said "Hail cousin, well met" I could be talking to anyone of 18 people in this room. I'm a pureblood, and therefore everyone with a pureblood parent is probably a 4th cousin or so, on one side or another. Now to me the blood means very little. A predisposition towards certain magical skills is the perhaps the only advantage magically of being pureblood, I'm talking about Animagi, Metamorphmagi, Occlumency and Legilimency etc, but apart from metamorphamagus these can be taught to anyone." She looked pensive for a moment and continued

"Now a little about myself and then a little about you. We have just the right amount of time for everyone to introduce themselves. I know - you know each other all 5 years, but you'll be surprised what you don't know about each other. I shall start. My name is Lysandra Ava Rosier Howard, though I'm generally known as Ava Howard. My mother was an English pureblood, my father an Irish one. I grew up in Ireland and though I went to Hogwarts, I attended a muggle primary school in Ireland. I love reading, horses and quidditch, my favourite subject in school was Potions and when I grow up I want to be a jockey." She smiled mischievously at us "So that's what I want - full name, blood status, where you're from, 3 things you like, favourite subject, and what you think you want to be when you grow up - no matter how silly. Okay?" At our nods, she conjured a small ball of white light, wandlessly and threw it up towards the ceiling. It bobbed there above her head.

"This will pick people at random, when it hovers over your head it's your turn. Okay go!" The little ball spun around the room, and stopped over the head of a Hufflepuff girl, who looked slightly terrified. She stood up and stuttered slightly before beginning.

"I'm Emily Sara Turner, my mother is a muggle born witch and my father's a pureblood. I'm from Devon, and I like... um ... um I like drawing, singing and poetry. My favourite subject is Astronomy and I want to be on the Wizarding Wireless" She turned bright red and sat down in a hurry, missing her chair and landing in the lap of the Slytherin who was sat behind her. She squeaked, and turned even redder. I giggled as quietly as was possible, the look on his face was priceless.

The ball of light spun around the room twice and went to find it's next victim.


End file.
